Economic Reporter :
The city’s shopping malls are bustling with shoppers from all strata amid the ongoing restriction on people’s movement as the Eid-ul-Fitr, the biggest religious festival for Muslims, is knocking at the door.
People from all strata are purchasing items of their own choice with huge enthusiasm despite significant rise in prices of all kinds of clothes than the last year.
A large number of people buy clothes, shoes, children’s garments and jewelry ahead of the Eid celebrations. Demand for unstitched fabrics, perfumes and cosmetics also remain high before the mega festivity.
With attraction of eye-catching colour and design of the silk wears, large number of people irrespective of age and sex especially the adolescents are humming towards the showrooms to collect their best choice.
A number of shoppers were seen at Jamuna Future Park on Friday ahead of, after the resumption of business amid the second wave of Covid-19.
The customer turnout on the 17th of Ramadan, even amid the non-availability of public transports, brings life back to the shopping centre, considered as the largest shopping mall in the country.
Rudmila Nadiah, a customer said she and her family had planned to leave the capital in a few days to spend the Eid at their village home. “That’s why I came today for shopping.”
“The presence of customers is satisfactory during the ongoing lockdown. We hope that more people will visit when public transports will be available. Sales are, however, not satisfactory yet,” said Md Golam Rabbi, manager of Top Ten Mart.
“We are happy that the government allowed us to keep malls open and do our business. Nevertheless, I urge the government to allow shopping malls to remain open till 11:00pm every day,” he added.
SM Jahidul Islam, manager of Rich Man, shared Golam Rabbi’s disappointment regarding the sales.
“Customers are visiting our showroom, but sales are not satisfactory considering it is the Eid shopping season. I hope more customers will come in the upcoming days before Eid,” he said.
Salma Akhter, manager of Artisan, said, “Our sales are better now as we’ve offered some discounts on our products. A large number of customers visit our showroom on Friday.”
She added that they were following health guidelines in their showroom as before.
“We have launched new items for Eid. Currently, we offer no discount on any products in our showroom,” said Raihan Faisal, sales executive of Le Reve.
He also said that most of their staff members were facing problems due to the non-availability of public transports during the lockdown and their travel costs had increased a lot compared to normal days.
“This is a very difficult time for all of us who are involved with the clothing business. I think sales will increase in the next few days,” said Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, manager of Freeland.
The government earlier allowed shopping malls and markets in Dhaka to remain open till 8:00pm every day maintaining government-directed health guidelines amid the lockdown across the country starting from April 14.
